Opinion: Baylor Can Call. Jeff Traylor Isn’t Going Anywhere.
Baylor fired Dave Aranda on Sunday. By Monday morning, half of Texas had Jeff Traylor in green and gold. Photoshops, odds boards, hot boards, “Baylor Traylor” replies stacked up all over X.
We get it. We’ve seen this movie before. And here’s our take, plain and simple: Jeff Traylor isn’t going anywhere.
What Traylor actually said
Don’t take our word for it. Take his. On Monday, Traylor joined San Antonio’s Sports Star (SA Sports Star) with Jason Minnix and Joe Reinagel, and he got asked about Baylor right away. Here’s the clip, posted by Javi Cardenas of Birds Up:
Traylor told SA Sports Star that he has been “supposedly going to take a job at seven different schools” during his seven years on their show. Then he got to the point: “I signed a 10-year contract here. My wife and I love it. We’ve got some things to finish here.”
He listed what he means by that: getting closer on the revenue-share number, on the staff, and on an indoor practice facility. “It’s never going to move fast enough for me,” he told SA Sports Star. But as long as things keep “moving in the right direction,” he said, “Cari and I plan on riding out our full contract here. We love it here.”
That’s not a coach hedging. That’s a coach telling his home market where he plans to be. You can hear the full SA Sports Star segment on their YouTube stream, and SA Sports Star posted the show here:
He’s already said no to a bigger Texas job
This isn’t a hypothetical. Traylor has been here before, and he stayed.
Jackson Posey, a Baylor grad and former sportswriter, pointed out two things on Monday that every Baylor fan building a Traylor Photoshop should read:
Posey wrote that “Traylor already turned down the Texas Tech job (in 2021) for asking him to leave before the end of the season.” The report he screenshotted says Texas Tech wanted Traylor to start right away. With UTSA unbeaten and chasing a New Year’s Six bowl, that report says, Traylor “couldn’t bring himself to bail on his players and ruin their season” and chose to lock in a 10-year deal to stay at UTSA. That 2021 team opened 11-0, according to the American.
The San Antonio Express-News has also reported that Traylor turned down Texas Tech after getting assurances that UTSA was ready to commit more financial resources to football.
Now think about the calendar. UTSA is 7-1. Would a coach who wouldn’t leave an unbeaten team in 2021 walk out on this one in 2026?
Look at what he’s building
Saturday’s 42-19 win at Tulane was UTSA’s fifth straight. The Roadrunners forced six takeaways, tying a school record, and moved to 4-0 in the American. According to the American, the 7-1 start is UTSA’s best since that 2021 team. The only loss came at Texas. (Our Week 8 recap has the full breakdown.)
This team sits first in the American standings. Traylor said it himself: there are things to finish here.
So why does Baylor keep coming up?
Because he’s good. That’s the honest answer.
Bears Illustrated, the 247Sports Baylor site, has identified Traylor as a potential target, per CBS Sports, and Sporting News included him in its list of possible Aranda replacements. Those are reports and lists, not offers. Baylor hasn’t said who it’s talking to.
Posey also raised an interesting wrinkle. In his post, he wrote that Mack Rhoades, Baylor’s AD when Traylor was hired at UTSA, “didn’t want to take a coach from his former colleague at UTSA,” and that the current AD “presumably has no such qualms.” Fair point. Baylor might make a call this time. But a phone call isn’t a yes.
The Express-News put it best a while back: what UTSA should dread isn’t the day a Big 12 or SEC job opens and everyone asks about Traylor. It’s the day one opens and “nobody mentions him at all.”
The bottom line
Could things change? Sure, this is college football. But we’re going with the evidence. Traylor has a 10-year deal. He turned down a bigger Texas job once, in the middle of an unbeaten season. And on Monday he told SA Sports Star that he and his wife plan to ride out the full contract.
UTSA has a bye this week, then goes to Florida Atlantic on Thursday, Nov. 5. Traylor will be on that sideline. Bet on it.
Follow @SASnapcount210 on X for more UTSA and San Antonio football coverage.